Volume 15 | Communication Design: material artefact, immaterial influence.

Studies in Material Thinking (SMT) in collaboration with CUMULUS Milan 2015 Conference -The Virtuous Circle and Politecnico di Milano, is calling for submissions to a special volume of research articles to be published in May/June 2016.

Disseminating / Communicating
Communication design has a long historical relationship with the advertising industry and its role in that context has primarily been concerned with getting people to buy more things. This characterisation and practice of it has overshadowed its less obvious role as a kind of educational tool in instructing people on how to do things or informing people about political or social issues. Irrespective, these common interpretations of communication design practice share a central interest in influencing the behaviour of the people that come into contact with it. In this regard, although the artefacts it produces usually have a material manifestation what they seek to change is inherently immaterial. Notwithstanding that the images produced by communication are both everywhere and short lived, they are nonetheless part of the visual landscape of the world in which we live. As vision is one of the primary senses through which humans perceive the world, and as our perception of the world informs how we act within and upon that world, then this ubiquitous and ephemeral visual landscape plays a central role in how we understand and fashion that world.

This special issue of Studies in Material Thinking is seeking submissions that explore the mutually dependent relationship between the material and immaterial in communication design and the role it plays in how we experience, imagine and transform our world. Submitted papers may be largely theoretical, report on empirical research, or be a combination of both.

Submission deadlines:
• Deadline for full papers - by invitation: July/August 2015
• Peer review: September 2015 to February 2016
• Deadline for revised drafts: February 2016
• Copyediting: February to April 2016
• Formatting and upload: May/June 2016
• Expected publication: July/August 2016.

Co-Editors:
Mark Roxburgh [mark.roxburgh@newcastle.edu.au]
Elena Caratti [elena.caratti@polimi.it]
Paolo Ciuccarelli ‎[paolo.ciuccarelli@polimi.it]‎

Editor-in-Chief: Nancy de Freitas
Studies in Material Thinking, ISSN 1177-6234
School of Art and Design, Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies, AUT University, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
http://www.materialthinking.org
ndef@aut.ac.nz

Please feel free to contact us to explore ideas that you may have related to the content and format of a submission. We are happy to discuss ideas.